“This is one of those moments”

After twenty years of waiting and dreaming, and after years of listening to the 1994, 2000 and 2006 concert albums and seeing recorded footage on tape or DVD – my dream has finally come true. I have tickets to see BARBRA STREISAND live in concert “Barbra: Back to Brooklyn” October 11, 2012.

These past few days have been a nightmare. Freaking out about not being able secure tickets, annoyed about ticketmaster’s automated system and the agony of not getting the seats or the price range one wants.

I get to return to New York and see Barbra live. Not only that, but I also get the chance to meet fellow Barbra fans, many of whom have been very supportive and helpful in the melee over this possible ONE night only event. Although, fans doubt Streisand would schlep all the way to her hometown just for one night. Most people I’ve talked to (and befriended) are sure that if sales are brisk (as the Pre-sales have been incredibly hot) Barbra’s concert team will gladly add a second night.

Finally, after years of dreaming!

Barbra’s people announced that there would be a second pre sale today, but they failed to inform fans when it would be. As of right now I’ve been up for over 12 hours, since 12a.m. this morning. American Express started their pre sale today and will last a week (up until general sale on the 21st). Ticketmaster “gladly accepts” AmEx cards, so that drove a lot of fans crazy. On Facebook there’s a group called “Barbra Brooklyn Fan Group – Join Us For The Fun” with all sorts of people rejoicing over getting tickets or complaining about ticketmaster itself. I feel like I’ve made several new friends over the past 2 days.

“There are moments you wait for and dream of, all your life. This is one of those moments.”
– Alan and Marilyn Bergman

As of May 29th, there has been a second date added (October 13, 2012) due to the first night being sold out in mere minutes.

Oh, I cannot wait!

“Starting here, starting now”

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, I know. Fortunately I have made it through yet another semester of school. I was very concerned about my grades for the Spring 2012 semester, but I made it through with very respectable grades. I even passed Spanish 2010, the same class that gave me such terrible trouble last fall. There’s light at the end of the education tunnel, and I’m on track to graduate December of this year. I cannot wait. It’s been a long journey, and I’m itching to embark on other escapades that don’t include being stuck in the land of academia. 

I’m looking forward to this summer. I’m taking two summer classes: Spanish 2020 and Poetry Writing (I need the writing class for to complete my minor.) which I am actually excited about. Weird. I haven’t taken a summer class since 2007, and admittedly I should have been proactive on summer classes in the past, I might have graduated earlier than December 2012 – live and learn. 

This summer is also perfect timing to get a job. I’ve not had a summer job since I graduated from Motlow this time two years ago. I actually want a job, and I’ve put out resume after resume. I even took a class this spring that helped me write a professional grade cover letter and resume (an employment package as my professor called it,) but I can’t seem to get any call backs. I’ve put out tons of resumes. It’s so disheartening. I will keep going however, nothing is going to stop me. 

Also this blog post wouldn’t be complete without a mention of BARBRA STREISAND. The entertainment grand dame recently celebrated her 70th birthday, and Columbia Records/SONY Entertainment announced that she will be making a return to New York on October 11, 2012, to take part in the opening of the new Barclays Arena, in her hometown of Brooklyn, NY. This news is a welcomed surprise to Streisand fans (like myself) who have eagerly awaited news regarding her film The Guilt Trip, and the any development on a big screen adaptation of Gypsy. 

Tickets for this “one-off” concert range anywhere from $90 to $650 with a rumored $1500 available with presale codes offered on Wednesday morning. The presale starts this Saturday at 10a.m. EDT.

Streisand has toured in 1994, 2000, 2006 and now 2012. That’s 4 tours, 6 years apart. Streisand’s favorite (and lucky) number is 24. What is 4 x 6 = 24! It’s perfect. 

I’ve never been able to see Streisand live. I was either not aware that she was touring, or the tickets were out of my price range. When she toured in 2006 and did a show in Atlanta, I desperately wanted to see her. I had recently graduated from high school and had started college. At the time, I thought the concert was the perfect belated graduation gift. Unfortunately I could not convince my parents to lend me the $750 + needed for a ticket. 

However, here we are, six years later, and I’m due to graduate again – this time with my Bachelors degree. What could be more perfect: another graduation – yet another chance to see the greatest female recording artist on stage! 

I’ve prayed and prayed and prayed. I have friends who live in Brooklyn and would love to see New York again. I can just feel it – two tickets have my name on them, and come October 11, 2012 I will sitting amongst 18,998 of Barbra Streisand’s fans listening to her beautiful burnished voice.

Tickets go on sale to the public May 21, 2012. 

Mp3

I’m a self-professed Apple product nut. I have an iPod Classic, iPod Touch and a MacBook Pro. However, I am more than a little perturbed with my iPod classic. It’s a 4th or 5th generation, and honestly I can’t remember which generation because Apple comes out with newer versions of everything. Anyway, I used to have all my music 120gbs loaded onto my iPod at one time. Unfortunately I lost my external HD (it held tons of music)  and my iPod went nuts after that. I’ve reset the device twice already. It keeps giving me error messages and the like, which really pisses me off.

I collect music. No I don’t collect music, I hoard the stuff. If I had it my way, I’d be on that Horders television show with tons of CDs, Lp’s and collectors items.Wouldn’t that be interesting, a room just  I live for the record store and I’m probably one of a handful of Generation Y kids that still buys physical copies of albums, instead of those lousy compressed Mp3 flies. Yet here I am, ironically complaining about an Mp3 player that is probably 5 years old.

I don’t know what people did before Mp3s, CDs, or tapes. I remember my first SONY Walkman, walking around with cassettes or homemade mix tapes was such fun.  Now the Walkman is all but defunct. Nevertheless I still crave my music to be at my fingertips. What do I want to listen to? Madonna? Barbra Streisand? Styx? Pink Floyd?

I remember not too long ago, actually it was two years ago, I wanted to do my Honors Thesis on a music related topic. At my university, it was a requirement to prepare an Honors Thesis in order to graduate with a diploma from the Honors college. The sky was the limit, you could pick any topic (pending approval) and write to your hearts content. The Thesis room inside the Honors Building is filled with all sorts of papers on a myriad of topics, I was instantly in love.

I’ve always wanted to do a big research project on music. Researching one particular artist and a certain aspect about their craft that has always fascinated me.

Being the music lover that I am, a tuning forked pinged inside my head. A440 sounded bright and cheerful,  and my mind hummed the classic note. Streisand, I thought. But not just any thing regarding the entertainment icon. No, no. I wanted to do a project on the art of arranging.

You see, I’m a piano player. A pianist. I’ve been at the keys since I was a toddler. Ever since I was four years old, my family dreamed of me becoming the next Horowitz or Liberace. Sadly, that never materialized. I still play piano with a fervor and passion all my own. The same passion I have for the piano has inexorably permeated to other areas.

I love how music is created, how it is crafted. I thought it would be cool to trace the steps of how arrangers, composers, musicians and producers go about crafting music for a particular artist (i.e. Streisand). I wanted to focus on a one album in her career and go from there. I’ve researched and researched and asked around for possible interviews. Yet, nothing has come to fruition. It’s always been a dream to talk to Ms. Streisand herself. The perfectionist and task master doesn’t listen to her own recordings, nor does she think about a project after completion. But, how does she know what she wants from an album? How does an artist of her calabre know who to turn to for arranging an album? There is so much to think about, so many questions to ask.

As I sit here and contemplate why my iPod has decided to stop working, I’m reminded of the dreams I have and the ideas that are filed away, in some dusty drawer of my brain – marked “Someday.” Someday, I will write that paper, Someday I will to visit Columbia Records, Someday I hope to meet my musical heroes. 

What Matters Most

Barbra Streisand, is an entertainment grande dame. She’s done everything and has acquired every accolade the entertainment biz can provide: 2 Oscars, 8 Grammy awards and multiple Emmys, Golden Globes and a TONYS et al. She is the inspiration and driver behind some of the greatest pieces of entertainment ever seen. Streisand’s presence is all over Hollywood and the small screen, as “Glee” makes full use of Streisand signature tunes on the television show.

On August 23rd, she returns with yet another album What Matters Most: Barbra Streisand sings the lyrics Alan and Marilyn Bergman, an album of 10 carefully chosen pieces Streisand has not previously recorded in her illustrious nearly 50 year career. Streisand returns with a new album after her 2009 release, Love Is The Answer which rocketed to #1 on the Billboard charts in the United States and topped the charts in the U.K. making her the ONLY artist in history with #1 albums in 5 consecutive decades.

Thus far, I have heard three cuts off the album: “The Windmills of Your Mind,” “That Face,” and “Solitary Moon,” the latter just being aired recently on BBC Radio 2 in a world wide exclusive on Ken Bruce’s show. I have to say (without being too “Gaga”) that Streisand at 69 is still in remarkable voice and sounds to my ear more relaxed and less strained than on her 2009 release. The silkiness of “Solitary Moon” is at once both lush and sensual, the arrangement by Johnny Mandel is beautifully cohesive and carries his signature sweeping orchestral touches.

Streisand explained how the Bergmans have a ‘remarkable gift for expressing affairs of the heart’, noting her long-held desire to devote an entire album to the couple’s ‘amazingly varied and consistently inspired music’. In fact, the affection and respect between the lyricists and the artist is quite something: ‘When we write a song, we hear Barbra,’ the Bergmans said.

There’s still a month to go, but already Streisand fans are drooling for this new album. Perhaps it’s just me

Streisand is still What Matters Most.